How can you have a list of most common used/must know Russian words and not put давай on it? I know its not easy to translate the usage of it to English, I can't go a day without hearing it at least 631 times.

Maybe it's not on the list because its translation is somewhat contentious.

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The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. Thomas Jefferson.

It can be translated a number of ways.
It can be used inclusively, such "let's get going, let's get a move on, let's go" or it can be used as an informal order, such as "hurry up, go ahead, get going, get a move on, etc"

It can be translated a number of ways.
It can be used inclusively, such "let's get going, let's get a move on, let's go" or it can be used as an informal order, such as "hurry up, go ahead, get going, get a move on, etc"

Or in the same manner as 'alright then' and all sorts of things depending on context or inflection.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but how difficult you would say Russian grammar is? As difficult as English grammar, as French grammar, as German grammar?

Also, how long does it take for foreigners to learn a basic level Russian that would allow them to read a newspaper for example (1 year, 2 years)?

As a side note, looking over some Russian texts I noticed some of the words are exactly as Romanian words, the only difference being that they are written in Cyrillic.

I'm Indian. I lived in Russia for 3 years and travelled widely across Russia (done business with the CIS for a decade). I developed a working knowledge of Russian including reading and writing basic sentences which took me about 2 years to learn. I did have a teacher and after 2 years she told me the best way to develop a larger vocabulary was just to absorb myself more in Russian.

I agree with Skoblin's views on Russian grammar. The only other European language I have a basic knowledge of, is French and I would say the grammar of both languages is equally difficult. French has it different verb conjugations, while Russian has its different case endings of Proper nouns.

Watching Russian TV helped, as did travelling to smaller cities where the only language one is exposed to is Russian.